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Redact PDF

Permanently remove or hide sensitive text and images from your PDFs.

Drop your PDF here or click to browse

PDF or image files supported

Redact a PDF — visually black-out sensitive content

Draw black boxes on the page or blacklist words — the text underneath is permanently removed.

Redact PDF permanently removes text under a black rectangle. Unlike simply drawing a black box in an editor, our redaction (via PyMuPDF's apply_redactions) also deletes the underlying text stream — copying the redacted PDF into another tool will not reveal the hidden content.

Two workflows are supported: draw boxes visually on the page preview, or supply a comma-separated list of words to redact wherever they appear.

How to use it

  1. 1Upload the PDF.
  2. 2For visual box mode: draw rectangles over anything you want to hide. Preview any box with the × icon; adjust as needed.
  3. 3For word mode: type the words or phrases to redact, comma-separated.
  4. 4Press Redact PDF. The redacted copy downloads.
  5. 5Verify by opening the file — copying text from a redacted area should return nothing.

Real-world use cases

  • Remove personal identifiers before publishing an example document.
  • Redact salary lines from a joining letter before sharing publicly.
  • Black out addresses on a contract before filing publicly.
  • Remove names and account numbers from a scanned form.

Supported formats & limits

Input: PDF with a text layer (for word-based redaction). For scanned PDFs, use box-mode — word mode has nothing to search.

Privacy

Your uploaded file is written to a temporary folder on our server, processed, and deleted by the operating system as soon as the request finishes — typically within seconds. Nothing is stored in our database. Traffic is encrypted over HTTPS.

Full details in the Privacy Policy.

Frequently asked questions

Is the removed text truly gone or just hidden?▾

It is truly gone from the text stream. The area is filled with black, the underlying text objects are removed, and even a copy-paste from the redacted area returns nothing.

Can I redact metadata too?▾

The Redact tool does not remove metadata (author, title). Use the PDF/A tool or a metadata cleaner if that matters.

What about scanned PDFs?▾

Scanned PDFs are essentially images. Word redaction has no text to search. Use box mode instead — the image content is covered permanently.

Can I preview before applying?▾

Yes — every box you draw is visible in the preview before you press Redact.

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